Hi all, Richard, thanks for posting this! I'm still waiting for the transcript of the podcast to come out.
I also applaud that you deliberately avoided FUD, kudos. > Hi guys, > > In a recent episode of the Java Spotlight Podcast... > > http://blogs.oracle.com/javaspotlight/entry/java_spotlight_episode_30_henrik > > ...Henrik Ståhl (Oracle's Senior Product Director of Java Platform > Development) says (at 9:20) "[Oracle] looked at the evil alternative, > taking Java private... we determined it wasn't a good idea". But he > didn't say "we determined it wasn't possible". > > I contacted Henrik and asked for clarification: how would 'taking Java > private' work? Henrik replied that, given Oracle owns or co-owns all > OpenJDK Intellectual Property (IP), they can retroactively apply any > license they want. He said Oracle had rejected this idea because it > would lead to a community fork, but as Stephen Colebourne points out > (see blog comments) such a fork may not be practical. > > You can read my full blog post here: > > http://kennardconsulting.blogspot.com/2011/06/oracle-and-evil-alternative-taking-java.html > > This was news to me! It's certainly an interesting theoretical case. I guess it's not really new though - the question over "Do open source licenses (in particular, GPLv2/v3) trump or counter IP/patent claims?" hasn't been knocked around in courts often enough yet, I almost wish it had so there was some clarity around the issue. I'll note this very concern was raised by us (the LJC) when Goldman Sachs was nominated for the JCP SE/EE Executive committee seat (we were concerned that patents could be used as a weapon later on). John Weir of Goldman's stated _very clearly_ that GS would not behave in such a manner and that it would be counter productive. For many projects, this still remains a possibility though. Are there any lawyers on this list that can comment (or at least point us at some case law)? Cheers, Martijn -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
